1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to image scanning and outputting.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image scanners are known as essential devices in a variety of personal computer peripherals. Referring to FIG. 1, a flow chart of a conventional image scanning method is shown. The conventional scanning method includes following approaches. In the first step 110, a driver is actuated. Accordingly, in the step 120, a document to be scanned on a scan flat bed is pre-scanned for one time by a scanning module driven by the driver to generate an original image. Subsequently, in the step 130, parameter settings of the original image, such as brightness, shadow, and contrast settings, are adjusted by the user to generate a pre-view image. In the step 140, the document to be scanned is then scanned according to the pre-view image by the image scanner. Lastly, in the step 150, the image scanning process is completed to generate a scanned image.
As described above, in the conventional image scanning method, the document to be scanned is pre-scanned firstly to generate an original image. A preview image is then generated by adjusting parameter settings of the original image, such as brightness, shadow, and contrast setting. Lastly, the document to be scanned is scanned to generate the scanning image with the set of parameters of the pre-view image and complete the scanning process.
However, only one pre-view image with the adjusted parameter setting and only one set of parameters corresponding to the pre-view image are stored after the pre-scanning operation. When the only set of parameters is applied to the original image generated by pre-scanning another document to be scanned, only one pre-view image of another document to be scanned with the only set of parameters will be generated.
Consequently, the conventional image scanning method has the following disadvantages:
1. The scanning time is too long. The parameter settings of the previous document to be scanned fail to be applied to a new document to be scanned for outputting several scanning images with the same set of parameters. Therefore, the parameter settings should be adjusted again whenever a new document is to be scanned, which increases the scanning time.
2. It is easy to make mistakes during the operation of adjusting parameter settings again. To adjust parameter settings again not only complicates the scanning process but also makes the new adjusted parameter settings inconsistent with the parameter settings of the previous documents easily.